I've been struggling to work on that
Odyssey essay, so here's something else about the 3D games in the meantime: I prefer
Super Mario 3D Land to
3D World, and probably to
Galaxy 2 at this rate.
This comes with the sub-take that
3D Land shouldn't, like, become a non-entity and keep getting left out of lists and discussions.
- It sold about as much as the Wii U itself, so why pretend only the Wii U game exists?
- It's the series' only game designed for handheld. Call it bland, but it is its own thing, and works in context. 3D World just plops these design choices on an HD home console, and feels insubstantial and derivative.
- It has a solid theme (imo, and despite not having played SMB3). 3D World is about pipes—no, fairies—no, cats (detracting from Bowser's Fury, which does this better)—no, circuses—Bowser has a muscle car—no, tanks—trains—an amusement park—
- 3D World can't be properly discussed without it as context. For example, the whole "3D Land made you replay every course as an extra character, so do that 5 times for 5 characters!" situation.
Compare
3D Land and the NSMB games how you may. I don't think it stoops that low, but I don't want to stifle people pushing for more creativity. But to me,
3D Land is just, what
Galaxy 2 was trying to be, but dropping the pretense. Like, if both games were going to have bright skies, cheery music, and hyperfocused courses unabashedly built in a level editor, I think I prefer the streamlined handheld experience with the strengths of the 2D games' format, over the home-console game claiming to be a sequel to
Galaxy while gutting the story, setting, atmosphere, and planet-to-planet variety.